Three Heroes of 2025
May their bravery inspire us all to find the courage to step up when it truly matters.
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The end of the year is typically a time for compiling lists of “The Best XXXX in 2025.” A couple of years ago, I honored some real-life heroes in my year-end piece. This year, I want to revive that format and celebrate another group of real-life heroes in 2025. Interestingly, two of them are from the same city—Hong Kong.
Out of a deadly fire, a hero emerged
On November 26, while Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, tragedy struck at the Wang Fuk Court towers, an apartment complex in Hong Kong where nearly a third of the residents were seniors. A resident’s recording revealed that fire alarms were disabled by the construction company without informing residents or authorities, leading many to remain unaware of the blaze until it was too late.
The fire tragically claimed at least 160 lives and left hundreds, if not thousands, homeless, marking it as the deadliest fire in the city’s recent history. Yet, amid the devastation, stories of heroism emerge.
I recently watched a podcast interview of a fire survivor, Mr. Li (the interview was conducted in Mandarin.) To summarize, Mr. Li is an ordinary young professional in Hong Kong. When the fire ignited, his wife and two young children were safely outside for a walk. However, Mr. Li found himself trapped in their second-floor apartment. He attempted to escape down the stairs but was met with overwhelming darkness and smoke. Just as he was about to return to his apartment, he heard someone crying out for help.
Amid heavy smoke that blocked his vision, he chose not to retreat to his apartment for safety. Instead, he ventured toward the sound, guiding himself with his hand on the wall. Soon, he discovered an elderly couple on the floor and promptly helped lead them back into his apartment.
When a firefighter outside raised a ladder to the window, Li selflessly allowed the couple to exit first, fully aware of the dangers of staying behind. After his rescue, Li made a conscious decision to avoid taking up medical resources better suited for those with more severe injuries. He opted to seek treatment at a hospital an hour away. Despite the bravery he displayed and the incredible escape he achieved, Li shared his story in a calm and collected manner. His demeanor reminded me that true heroes are often ordinary people who step forward at extraordinary moments.
Li only became visibly emotional as he shared that he was born and raised in that building, forming strong bonds with many seniors living on the top floors. They were like family to him, acting as parents and grandparents, nurturing him and providing meals when his own parents were occupied. Those neighbors also witnessed his growth and supported him as he started his own family in the same building, albeit in a different apartment on a lower floor.
Tragically, many of the elderly neighbors on the top floors did not survive. In Li’s poignant words, they “disappeared,” consumed by the flames and reduced to ashes. He carries the heavy weight of guilt for not being able to save more lives that day. His profound sense of loss brought tears to my eyes.
A Trouble-Maker the CCP is Afraid of
On December 8, 2025, Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy activist and former business tycoon, turned 78 years old. He has been incarcerated since 2020, much of it in prolonged solitary confinement. In 2021, Hong Kong authorities also shut down his media company, Apple Daily.
Lai’s children reported a rapid decline in his health, including significant weight loss. Lai could have avoided this suffering. He was aware of the CCP’s intolerance for critics. As a wealthy man with a British passport, Lai had plenty of opportunities to escape. Instead, he chose to stay and fight for the freedom of his fellow Hong Kongers. I wrote a book review of Lai’s biography, and if you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to read it here.
Lai’s unwavering stand—funding pro-democracy causes, and using his platform to expose authoritarianism—made him a trouble-maker in the eyes of the CCP: independent, influential, and unyielding.
On December 15, 2025, a Hong Kong court convicted Lai of violating the National Security Law (NSL). The landmark verdict—in a trial widely criticized as politically motivated—could result in a life sentence for Lai. The NSL, enacted in 2020 after massive pro-democracy protests, has been used to silence dissent, shutter independent media, and erode judicial independence. In the 2025 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, Hong Kong plummeted to 140th out of 180 countries, and classified in the “red zone” of press freedom alongside mainland China. This stands in stark contrast to the “One Country, Two Systems” framework that the CCP promised until 2047, which guaranteed high autonomy and civil liberties.
The deterioration of Hong Kong should serve as a reminder: never trust the CCP to keep its promises.
The General Who Defied Order in 1989
In late November 2025, a six-hour video recording of a secret 1990 military court-martial surfaced online, shedding unprecedented light on one of the most courageous acts of conscience in modern Chinese history. The footage documents the trial of Major General Xu Qinxian, commander of the elite 38th Army—one of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) most prestigious units—who refused orders to deploy his troops against pro-democracy protesters in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
In spring 1989, hundreds of thousands of mostly student-led demonstrators occupied Tiananmen Square, calling for political reforms, greater democracy, and an end to corruption. As the protests grew, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and other hardliners decided to impose martial law. Xu—then recovering from kidney stones in a hospital—was summoned to Beijing Military Region headquarters and ordered to mobilize approximately 15,000 troops from his army to enforce it. Xu was the only senior military leader who famously refused the order and was quickly detained.
Other military leaders followed through with the order. Between the night of June 3rd and the morning of June 4th, PLA soldiers fired on unarmed protestors and innocent bystanders. Estimates suggest that thousands were killed and many more were injured.
Xu’s closed-door court-martial took place on March 17, 1990, in a Beijing military court. The leaked video—described by historians as authentic and a major historical revelation—shows Xu remaining composed and defiant. During the trial, Xu emphasized that sending armed troops against civilians would lead to chaos, stating that a poorly executed martial law would make a commander “a sinner in history.” He chose defiance over that legacy.
Xu was convicted of disobeying orders, sentenced to five years in prison, stripped of his rank, and expelled from the Communist Party. After his release, he lived under restrictions until his death on January 8, 2021, at age 85
The video, first shared in late November 2025 and widely circulated on platforms like YouTube (often in parts with translations), quickly went viral among Chinese-speaking audiences overseas, where discussion of Tiananmen remains heavily censored in mainland China. It has garnered thousands of views and comments praising Xu’s humanity and moral courage. Notable viewer reactions include:
“Today you sit in the dock; one day you will stand on a monument of merit. History and the people will remember you forever.”
“Mr. Xu is first and foremost a person, and only then a soldier—a soldier of the people, not a soldier of a dictatorship.”
The leaked video has reignited global interest in the suppressed history of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, reminding the world of the personal costs of conscience in the face of authoritarian orders. Xu remains a symbol of quiet heroism: the general who chose principle over obedience.
There are many real-life heroes in 2025. Please take a moment to honor and celebrate the heroes in your lives. May their bravery inspire us all to find the courage to step up when it truly matters.
There is no newsletter for the Christmas week! Wish everyone a merry Christmas!
